Scientists have uncovered another early sign of COVID-19. This is reported in a study published in the journal of Clinical Immunology and Immunotherapy.
Experts recalled that along with the respiratory system, the coronavirus strikes the central nervous system. SARS-CoV-2 can trigger a variety of neurocognitive changes. One of the first symptoms of the disease is called delirium – a mental disorder that occurs with dimming of consciousness and impaired thinking and emotions.
The article says that the appearance of delirium in patients with COVID-19, as a rule, is caused by hypoxia, oxygen deprivation and other factors. In particular, hypoxia causes cerebral edema, which leads to neurological damage. Experts give an example that the death of 18 patients with coronavirus infection under the age of 32, whom they studied, was accompanied by hypoxia and severe brain damage. The penetration of SARS-CoV-2 particles in this case, as a rule, occurs through the respiratory system.
In the conclusion of the study, it is said that previously, not many detailed scientific papers have been written on the topic of the relationship between the new coronavirus infection and mental illness. Scientists have concluded that the coronavirus pandemic is associated with serious social and economic consequences that “the world has not remembered since the Second World War.”
In the summer, Spanish scientists called the appearance of a rash in the mouth as the earliest sign of coronavirus. According to the study, this symptom appears in patients about two days before other signs of COVID-19 appear.
